By Jack Phillips
An intense storm system passing over the northern United States is expected to drop heavy snow across the Great Lakes and Northern Plains regions in the coming days, including over the Thanksgiving holiday, likely causing traffic and flight delays or cancellations.
Blizzard warnings have been issued for northern Wisconsin and Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, according to a map posted by the National Weather Service (NWS).
Winter storm warnings are in effect for Minnesota, northern Wisconsin, and other parts of Michigan as of Nov. 26. Winter storm advisories have been issued for other areas in Wisconsin, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and New York state.
The NWS said the initial system moving across the Great Lakes is a deep cyclone and described it as fairly intense. The weather service said it will bring blizzard conditions to the region on Nov. 26, namely along the southern shore of Lake Superior.
“A fairly intense cyclone supported by a digging upper-level trough is bringing the first significant snowfall of the season across the northern tier states culminated with blizzard conditions as cold air rushes in behind the deep storm,” the weather service said.
The south shore of Lake Superior should “expect to receive well over a foot of snow, along with blizzard conditions at the height of this storm during the day today,” it said.
“For the remainder of the Great Lakes, rain will gradually change over to all snow by Thanksgiving morning along with windy conditions. More lake-effect snow bands can be expected to impact the Snow Belt downwind from the Great Lakes on the back side of the departing but expanding cyclone into Friday especially the lower Great Lakes. Meanwhile, the snow across the upper Great Lakes will show signs of tapering off by Friday morning.”
More broadly, the NWS said on the front page of its website that travel conditions will be an issue for the Northern Plains, Great Lakes, and East Coast through the holiday weekend.
Aside from the Midwest and East Coast, the NWS issued winter weather advisories for parts of northern Idaho and western Montana on Wednesday.
The intense weather conditions come as nearly 82 million are expected to travel 50 miles or more from home for the Thanksgiving holiday, the American Automobile Association (AAA) said in a report earlier this month. AAA said the figure represents an increase of around 1.6 million from Thanksgiving 2024.
AAA also projected that 1.3 million more travelers will be on the roads than last year, pushing the total number of people traveling by vehicle to at least 73 million.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said during a Nov. 24 news conference that air traffic controller staffing levels have stabilized in time for what he says will be the busiest Thanksgiving on record for travel, while the head of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reassured passengers that they can “fly with confidence” this week.
By the morning of Nov. 26, more than 1,000 flights were delayed across the United States with only a few dozen cancellations, according to flight tracking website FlightAware.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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